Summary

Perception of aestheticism of physical look in Kartena Valsčius

Asta Venskienė

The article deals with the aestheticism of physical look of woman’s face and creation of a stereotype image. Its goal was to find out whether there was a stereotype image of woman’s face beauty formed in the villages of Kartena rural district (valsčius) in the first half of the 20^th century. If yes, it would be compared to the stereotype perception of woman’s physical look common for all Lithuania.

The tasks were set to perform field investigations, generalise the data obtained and reveal the appealing and unappealing physical traits of woman’s face, and then to determine how the desirable stereotype look was tried to be reached in the society.

Field investigations have been performed during the expedition on August 5–14 in Kartena, where 22 women from 65 to 91 year old were questioned. 

The stereotype of woman’s face beauty formed in Kartena Valsčius did not differ from the stereotype image typical of all Lithuania. The stereotypes of Lithuania woman’s physical look in village culture image affected the relations of an individual with the society. Women tried to be identical or close to the ideal. To reach this they used folk cosmetics based on fats of animal origin, various acids and herb decoctions. In the first half of the 20^th century the folk cosmetics was gradually replaced by industrial cosmetics.